Very Bad Games

The Hungover Games is the latest sluggish addition to the "Let's parody anything that might be remotely funny" category of film, lampooning The Hunger Games (duh), Ted, The Hangover series, Carrie, Django Unchained and others.

This film steals so much from its peers, while at the same time lacking so many of its own original ideas that our main characters are actually taken directly from The Hangover. And for the most part, the storyline, or at least the first fifthteen minutes is also exactly the same as the 2009 Vegas Comedy. Just like in those movies, the fourth friend of the group is misplaced, leaving the first three to try and remember all the terrible things that they did the night before, in an attempt to rediscover him. I know this is a parody, but really? Word-for-word lines from The Hangover have been pilfered as their own. It's astonishing the true lack of any creativity that The Hungover Games possesses, whereas other awful spoof movies such as, say, Scary/Epic Movie seem to have some (very few) of their own ideas, here, "writers" Kyle Barnett Anderson et al, make it feel like they've photocopied Todd Philips' screenplay badly and then taken it for themselves.

But it turns out our three buddies have been transported to Hunger Games Land where they have to fight to the death with all the other favourable movies of the last seven years or so. This takes all those films you may have possibly enjoyed over the past few years and throws them in to one terrible mush: watch as the Ted bear has a penis, Katniss Everdeen has had her name changed to "Katnip" (HA!), and Willy Wonka is a homosexual. Add to that pops at race, some Human Centipede "jokes", underage sex gags and just a little bit of necrophilia and you experience an hour and a half of pure film diabolica. And for the people who defend the jokes for being jokes, perhaps if they were funny, fine, but otherwise it just comes off as offensive and downright lazy. The brow for this movie is so low that it's scraping along the ground.

I'll end on the only two positives: The people who play the Hangover team are very convincing, and the film itself is shot quite nicely. Otherwise, please, do not go and see this movie. I would rather have been dispatched by a Hunger Games arrow to the face then to have seen this film. Run – sprint, even – away if someone suggests watching this piece of garbage.

@JonnyJonJon1

"The Hungover Games" is one of those type of spoofs that mean well and tries really hard, but ultimately fail to deliver. Now, I am not saying that the movie is bad, it just really wasn't as funny as it was supposed to be. I can honestly say that I didn't laugh a single time throughout the entire movie.

For a movie of this type, then "The Hungover Games" takes on a variety of other movies, such as "Ted", "The Hunger Games" (obviously), "Pirates of the Caribean", "Avatar", "The Hangover", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The Human Centipede", "The Lone Ranger", and so forth. It is meant well, I am sure of it, but the comedy just slipped through every crack possible.

The acting in the movie was adequate, and people were doing fair jobs with their given roles, they just didn't have too much of a script to work with.

I used to love spoofs, such as "Hot Shots", "Scary Movie" and the like. Whether it is because I outgrew the genre, or because the spoof movies today are lacking what they did back in the 1990's, I do not know.

"The Hungover Games" is good enough entertainment if you have absolutely nothing else to watch.

I've been watching movies of all genres since the 1940's. So what is so wrong with this movie that it warrants such a low rating and so many negative comments? In my humble opinion absolutely nothing's 'wrong' with it, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed viewing it. The plot doesn't offend (it is what it has to be as a parody - KISS simple), the scriptwriting is excellent, the camera work/lighting is professionally done and the actors all do their part well. There was a synergism between the principal actors and they worked together really well.

I can understand that the movie will not be to everyone's taste: the humor certainly is a little raspy-raw toilet humor at times but that certainly did not define the humorous content of the movie as a whole and there's an unashamed borrowing of ideas and more from other movies: but it works and works amazingly well! After reading other reviewers comments I didn't expect much from this movie but kept an open mind and I'm glad I did otherwise I'd have missed out on a very enjoyable movie experience.

If I had to pick the most notable actor in this movie it would have to be the guy with the beard for his extraordinary portrayal of 'the other' guy with the beard in 'the other' movie. I also have to admit that I'm a fan of the beautifully sexy Rita Volk and she didn't disappoint. In summary then, nicely controlled tongue in cheek performances from the entire cast make for a very good laugh out loud piece of film entertainment. I rate it 6.5.

Going into any parody movie you really shouldn't expect anything. With the bar set low, it's a little less bad.

I laughed a handful of times but definitely lost interest before the movie ended. A few good gags but they're lost in an underwhelming parody. If you're really bored and out of things to watch I guess it might be okay? Wouldn't watch it again.

Not a strong parody movie. Some of the jokes are just awful and it's a little sad to see some name/recognisable actors in this.

Zach (Alan) was reasonably funny and I saw flashes of Ed (Stu) and Bradley (Phil) but there was barely enough in here to elicit a chuckle.

Bonus points for Katnip's breasts.